McHenry Journal.

Cary Library's Permit Phase Adopts `War And Peace' Pace

July 22, 1997|By Christine Winter.

Everybody who builds a deck or a fence or, heaven forbid, a room addition, has had to deal with the grind of municipal bureaucracies as they dicker for weeks before approving the necessary building permits.

We've all been there.

But you'd think that for a project as big as a new district library, a freebie for the taxpayer at that, things might move along a little more quickly.

Not so. Construction permits applied for in Cary in mid-June are still in the works for the Cary Area Public Library.

According to Bob Nowak, a building and zoning commissioner for Cary, the nearly six weeks that the permit has been pending--and therefore, holding up work on the long-anticipated project--is not a long time at all.

"You are talking about a public building here, and we want everything to be in order, according to code," Nowak said.

He indicated the plans have been sent back to the builder's architect, who is making minor revisions demanded by the village for code compliance.

"Whenever the architect gets finished, we will check over the changes, and it will take about a week after that to get through the process and issue a permit," Nowak said.

He anticipated there would be no problem getting the foundation and structure up by the time the weather turns cold.

The village's avid readers are not the only ones awaiting the completion of the library with bated breath.

The village desperately needs the space currently occupied by the library to expand its own Village Hall and police department facilities. When the library moves out, the village intends to remodel the quaint silo site into about 7,000 square feet of office space.

Right now, the Cary area library is so confined in its picturesque but impractical building that it can't add a book without removing an old one from the shelves.

Local businessman Tom Decker is building the 24,000-square-foot library as an "out-and-out gift" for the district. Although antsy to get started, Decker is voicing no complaints about the delays.

No doubt he is too smart a businessman to risk annoying the building department at this late stage of the game, even though the prime construction season is being frittered away.

He indicated, however, that he is surprised he has been unable to get work under way more quickly.

Meanwhile, his crews are busying themselves moving dirt around at the site, about all that can be done until the permits are approved.

"But we really want to get this foundation in the ground before the weather changes," Decker said.

There has been no other instance, that we can think of, at least, in which an entire library building was donated to a district in Illinois.

Decker, who is building the library at an estimated cost of about $3 million and turning it over to the district, said he is not making such an unprecedented gift to the Village of Cary, but to the community.

His only condition was that the Cary public library district expand to take in all of the territory in School District 26. That expansion was approved by voters in 1995.

Decker said he is planning a major announcement when he finally has the permits in hand.

More good works: The Northern Illinois Special Recreation Association, which provides recreational programs for disabled people in park districts and municipalities in Barrington, Cary, Crystal Lake, Dundee Township, Harvard, McHenry, Marengo, Wauconda and Woodstock, recently sponsored a small public ceremony to thank local groups that donated money for a new mini-bus.

The wheelchair-accessible bus is used to take association participants to and from activities, and on this morning, it pulled up loaded with swimmers eager to participate in a fitness program at the Dundee Township Rec Center.

The groups, which together donated $13,600 for the $42,000 cost of the mini-bus, are the Barrington Area United Way; the Top Cats of Illinois, a motorcycle club based in Barrington; NISRA Foundation; Cuba Township; Barrington Township, and the Crystal Lake Dawnbreakers Rotary Club.